Actor Christopher Reeve stars in a television remake of the 1954 Alfred Hitchcock classic Rear Window.The film, co-starring Daryl Hannah, airs tonight on WJBF-TV Channel 6.ASSOCIATED PRESS

Classic, good spirits mark Reeves return to the screen

airing tonight on WJBF-TV Channel 6.

Web posted November 22, 1998

By Patricia Brennan
The Washington Post

The Man of Steel turns out to have a will of iron.

Christopher Reeve, who was left a quadriplegic in a 1995 equestrian accident, returns to acting at 9 p.m. today in a remake of Cornell Woolrich's suspense tale Rear Window (which airs locally on WJBF-TV Channel 6).

Alfred Hitchcock directed the story in a 1954 film thriller starring James Stewart as a photographer, confined to a wheelchair with a broken leg, who spied on his neighbors by using binoculars.

In the updated movie from Hallmark Entertainment, Mr. Reeve plays an architect paralyzed in a car accident who watches people in the neighboring apartment building.

``I really enjoyed acting again,'' said Mr. Reeve. ``I'd been doing it for 28 years, but this was obviously a very unique role.''

The movie also has a second purpose: to show viewers how Mr. Reeve is doing personally. And if spirit is what counts, he seems to be fine.

Mr. Reeve tools around -- in the film and in real life -- in a state-of-the-art breath-activated wheelchair. He is shown exercising, aided by therapists and mechanical devices, so that, as he says both in the movie and in an interview, when researchers find a way to restore severed nerves, ``I'll be ready.''

Although he appeared briefly in A Step Toward Tomorrow, a 1996 television movie, and directed HBO's award-winning In the Gloaming in 1997, Mr. Reeve's portrayal of Jason Kemp is his first leading role since his accident.

Unlike Mr. Stewart's character, says Mr. Reeve, Kemp is a man who now can only live vicariously, through his neighbors.

``In the original,'' he said, ``Jimmy Stewart was a photographer and was used to taking pictures of everything, so it really was voyeurism. And just with a broken leg, you could easily get out of the wheelchair and hop around.''

Kemp has an assistant, played by Ruben Santiago-Hudson, and a secretary, Anne Twomey.

Daryl Hannah plays an associate in Kemp's architectural firm who has been given his projects. Their relationship is initially prickly. The promise of romance builds, but she is not the girlfriend that Grace Kelly was in the 1954 film.

When his day's work is done, Kemp begins observing neighboring apartments, each lighted like a small stage.

``It's sort of bittersweet,'' said Mr. Reeve. ``Everyone seems so occupied with life, and so vital -- a young couple getting ready to go out, a couple playing charades, a sculptor working away in his workshop. He looks across and it looks like a party he'll never be invited to. He only looks out the window because he has nothing to do, and he's coping under such difficult circumstances.''

He is drawn to the sculptor's apartment, where the man seems to be tormenting his wife, an alcoholic blonde. He calls 911 on his voice-activated computer to report domestic violence, then watches as a police detective (Robert Forster) arrives.

One night, awakened to the sounds of a fight and a scream, Kemp suspects that the man has killed his wife and encased her body in a sculpture. Kemp sends an e-mail, telling him that he won't get away with it. Thus begins a cat-and-mouse game between the sculptor (Ritchie Coster) and Mr. Reeve. (In the Hitchcock film, Raymond Burr played the villain.)

``The plot throws tremendous challenges at him,'' said Mr. Reeve. One challenge is what Mr. Reeve calls ``pop-offs,'' when ventilator tubes slip, cutting off oxygen. That has happened to Mr. Reeve and it happens in the movie -- for real.

``When you have a pop-off, you have no air left in your body at all,'' said Mr. Reeve. ``If I was still on the ventilator, you wouldn't see my chest move. In six or eight takes, they covered every angle. I felt that every aspect of the world of disability should be accurate.''

At home, he secures the connections with duct tape.

Life hasn't been easy for Reeve. He has been hospitalized 11 times, often with life-threatening problems.

Now he's interested in teaching people what can be done for patients with spinal-cord injuries. Rear Window is one effort.

``If you make a documentary about that kind of subject, people go passing by it, maybe stopping for a minute or two,'' he said. ``Yet if you construct a hopefully captivating thriller that will hold them to the edge of their seats, you can sneak in the information and let them get a look within the context of a drama.''

Mr. Reeve said that acting in Rear Window was more difficult than directing In the Gloaming.

``In order to keep the dialogue flowing in a scene, each person needs to come in on cue, and yet I can only speak when the ventilator gives me a breath of air. I often worried that I would hold up a scene while I was waiting for air to come from the ventilator. I guess I just got lucky. I was able to keep the conversation going.''

Although his contract called for a short day, Mr. Reeve stayed every night until all the scenes were done, he said. ``Most nights I was getting to bed at 4 a.m. and I had to leave for the set again at noon. I wake up at 8 and do my exercises. Surprisingly, the harder I worked, the better I felt, and I actually was in better shape in spite of the lack of sleep and the long hours. I have much more endurance now.''